Cade Cunningham set the tone from the start, John Collins filled the stat sheet, and the Detroit Pistons kept their perfect start rolling with a 106-93 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night.
Cunningham finished with 26 points, while Collins added 16 points and 11 rebounds as Detroit moved to 3-0. The Pistons were doing it without All-Star center Jalen Duren, who will be out at least two weeks with a strained right hamstring. Duren got hurt in the first half of Detroit’s win over Miami on Friday, and this was the first test without him.
Detroit passed it cleanly. The Pistons led from wire to wire against a Philadelphia team on the second night of a back-to-back and without starters Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe. Embiid rested after posting a triple-double against Milwaukee the night before, and Edgecombe sat because of an abdominal contusion.
Tyrese Maxey scored 29 points to pace the Sixers, and LeBron James added 18 in his return after missing the game against Milwaukee to rest his back. Philadelphia dropped for the first time after opening the season 3-0.
The Sixers had already shown they can erase a huge deficit, coming back from 29 down against Cleveland earlier in the week, and they flashed some of that same push here after Detroit built a 21-point first-half cushion. But this time, the rally never turned into a takeover.
James sparked one burst with three straight layups as part of a 9-0 run that pulled Philadelphia within 56-44 at halftime. When the Sixers later sliced the margin to five, Cunningham answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to push Detroit’s lead back to nine, and the Pistons carried a 10-point edge into the fourth.
Philadelphia made one more push there, only to have Duncan Robinson quiet it with a 3-pointer. Robinson was one of Detroit’s biggest perimeter weapons, helping the Pistons make five of their 14 shots from deep.
Detroit came out flying with a 15-1 run and stretched the advantage to 56-35 in the second quarter, setting the pace for the night.
Next up, Detroit visits New York on Tuesday. Philadelphia heads to Indiana on Wednesday.
In Other News...
Kelly Oubre Is Giving Sixers Fans A Familiar Feeling In Indiana
Kelly Oubre Jr. landed in Indiana on a two-year contract hoping for a fresh start, but his first two games have looked awfully familiar to anyone who watched him in Philadelphia. He has averaged 3.5 points, two rebounds and 2.5 assists while struggling badly from the field and beyond the arc, a rough opening that has already put his shot selection and rhythm back under the microscope.
For Sixers fans, the early returns may feel like dj vu because the same outside-shooting issues followed Oubre through three seasons in Philadelphia, where he hit just 32 percent from three. If that trend keeps up with the Pacers, his fit there could become a much tougher sell, and his value may shrink as Indiana tries to sort out where he fits in the rotation. [Read more 🡒]
Joel Embiid May Have Found What Unlocks The 76ers Offense
Joel Embiids offensive role has shifted in a way that could matter a great deal for the 76ers, especially as Nick Nurse keeps looking for cleaner ways to organize the attack. Instead of living almost entirely as a finisher on the block, Embiid has been used more at the top of the key and in the high post, where he can see the floor and set up teammates. The result has been a more varied offense, with Embiid averaging a career-high 5.7 assists per game while taking fewer shot attempts.
The change has also given Philadelphia a different kind of fallback when the offense bogs down. Embiid handled primary playmaking duties in a recent game in which LeBron James was out, and he responded with a triple-double, a reminder that his value does not have to come only from scoring. For the 76ers, the real question is whether this expanded role can keep unlocking the same kind of balance when the games get tighter and the defensive attention gets heavier. [Read more 🡒]
Jaylen Brown Drama Is Giving 76ers Fans A New Reason To Watch Boston
Boston drama has a way of lingering well beyond the Celtics own fan base, and this latest round around Jaylen Brown has given 76ers followers another reason to keep one eye on their biggest rival. Brian Scalabrine, speaking on his Sirius XM show, said Brown reportedly wanted a trade out of Boston and had interest in Milwaukee, adding another layer to the long-running conversation about the Celtics locker room and the uneasy balance between Brown and Jayson Tatum.
For Philadelphia fans, the intrigue is less about confirming the rumor and more about what it says about a team the Sixers may still have to measure themselves against in the East. There has been plenty of outside chatter about competitive tension inside Boston, but no official statement has backed up a trade request, which leaves the whole thing in the realm of speculation for now. Even so, any hint of friction in Celtic land is the sort of storyline that tends to keep the scoreboard-watching a little more interesting in Philly. [Read more 🡒]